Spinning the Wheel of Fortune

The Dead Zone

Stephen King, 1979

4.5 Stars

Whilst at the pub the other night, I met an aging musician. Tall, pot-bellied with long curly hair and a scraggly beard. Having been immersed this week in Stephen King’s intoxicating tale of precognition and apocalyptica, I thought for a while that I too was having a terrifying glimpse into the future.

Unfortunately the guy was a tiresome drunk, so I ruddy well hope not.

The Dead Zone, King’s fifth novel and the first in the Castle Rock saga, follows the tragic tale of Johnny Smith, a young teacher who awakens from a five year coma, only to discover that his high school sweetheart is now married with kids, his mother is a religious zealot and President Nixon wasn’t such a nice chap after all. Oh, and he can also see the future.

Adapting to his new life and the changed world around him, John quickly becomes the focus of media attention after predicting a house fire and thereafter uncovering the true identity of the Castle Rock Strangler, a bloodthirsty killer who has brought about a spate of deaths during the years of Johnny’s coma.

After shaking hands with a presidential candidate, however, Johnny has a terrifying vision of nuclear apocalypse, a prediction he must stop at all costs.

Ticking all of the mandatory King boxes; intriguing characters, fluid and entrancing story telling, as well as the ever-important religious debates, The Dead Zone also delivers something that has become something of a rarity in King’s later works; a satisfying ending. Rather than a daft loophole or wishy-washy uncertainty (see Desperation, Needful Things, IT, Cell, etc), Johnny’s final fate, as well as the circumstances surrounding them and the results thereof, feel both believable and gratifying.

Page-turning and thought-provoking, forget all the other “vintage” King; this one really is a classic.